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My 10 Tips for Being Better at Social Media Marketing

Every now and then someone will find out that I was a social media manager in my past life and they’ll ask me for tips for how to improve their social media marketing. The internet has a LOT of great resources available, so I never know what exactly to tell people except to check out Social Media Examiner, because they were my favorite resource for all the things related to social media when that was my job.

However, there are some fairly common mistakes that I see people, especially my friends and family members with small businesses, making that are super simple fixes. 

Tailor your photos to your platform.

This is my biggest pet peeve because it’s the easiest one to fix! Why cut off your image or mangle it when you can use a tool like Canva to size your social media images to the platforms you’re using. (Also, Canva is a fabulous tool to create images for social media. It’s free and easy and I don’t know what I would have done without it.) Don’t know what dimensions work best for each platform? Check out Sprout Social’s Cheat Sheet.

Take advantage of scheduling tools.

No one thinks they have time to constantly be adding content to social media and that is a straight up lie. Set aside one hour a week and schedule out all of your content for the week in advance. It super easy to schedule posts on Facebook and to use free tools like Tweetdeck to schedule promotional tweets. Got a little extra $$? Try out a social media management tool like Buffer to schedule posts across multiple platforms.

Use IFTTT (If This, Then That) to cross post content.

(I say this with the caveat that IFTTT let’s other people know that you’re being lazy and using it to post the same content to multiple channels. I think this can be a bit impersonal and can feel a little cheap. This could just be me though.)

That being said, IFTTT is a fantastic way to get content onto multiple platforms without having to put in a lot of work. Just set up your formulas for what you want to post and where and BAM! Every time you post something to Instagram, you post it to Twitter too. Or everything you post to Twitter get posted to Facebook. Or some other combination. It’s really quite something.

Set aside time weekly to find out what’s trending and tailor your content towards those things.

It doesn’t have to be a lot of time, especially if you’re someone who already pays attention to the news and to what people are talking about on Facebook or Twitter. Just take note of what that content is and if you can spin it to apply to your business. Use that as fodder for one or two timely posts a month and all of a sudden you are using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies in your marketing. It also shows your followers that you’re in the know and care about what’s going on in the world, which never hurts.

Choose platforms that you will actually use and get rid of the rest.

You do not have to be on every new social media platform that arises, I promise.

Your social media marketing is only as good as the content you create, so if you know that you’re not ever going to use Instagram to promote your business, it’s okay to go ahead and delete that account. Focus your attention on platforms that you’re comfortable with creating content for. You’ll find that you have more time to create engaging content for the social media platforms you actually care about and your followers will definitely appreciate it.

(If you decide to delete a social media account or two, just make sure that you update your website to reflect the platforms you’re using. Nothing is worse than clicking on a social media icon only to discover a broken link.)

Interact with your community.

A lot of people forget that social media should be … social. Reply to comments on your posts! Thank people for leaving reviews! Comment on other posts that are relevant to your business! Get in there and let people know who you are and what you do! Creating opportunities for conversation is an important aspect of social media marketing that I see a lot of people forgetting.

Use video.

I hated this when I was working in social media, but the hard truth is that video is VERY important to your social media marketing. It got big around 2014 and it is not going away. Accept it now and move on.

The good news is that it’s pretty easy to create videos for your social media platforms using a smartphone or tablet. And you don’t even need a YouTube channel to do it. (Although I suggest you create one for a video archive, if nothing else. You don’t have to advertise that it’s there.)

Set up an information session where you answer basic questions about your business. Take your followers on a virtual tour of your space. Schedule a live Q&A. Show off something you think is super cool. Video, especially live video, has become a mainstay for social media marketing.

My advice for video is to try to keep your pre-recorded videos pretty short (under 30 seconds) and your live videos at least 15 minutes long. Short pre-recorded videos mean that people will actually be able to watch the whole thing while they’re scrolling through their feed and longer live videos allow for more time for viewers to engage with you.

Respond to comments (And turn on your notifications).

I touched on this earlier, but it bears repeating. Social media should be social. And in the social media world, your response times should be FAST. Many experts say that you should never let a comment or post sit there without interaction for more than 60 minutes. I personally think that this is overkill, especially if you’re a small business owner who has a lot on your plate. But don’t make your followers wait longer than 24 hours for a response either.

If you don’t have notifications for your social media turned on, do that now. It’s so much easier to respond to comments in a timely manner if you are actually aware that a comment has been made on one of your posts.  

Be a resource for your followers.

Please don’t post nothing but promotional content. Your followers aren’t going to be engaged with your social media you if all you do is post promotional. At the very best, they will just start to ignore your posts; at the very worst, they will unfollow you.

Instead, share an article relevant to your business with commentary about why you found it interesting. Review a book or a recipe (as long as you can tie it back to your business). Share other people’s videos or a quote that inspires you. Your followers want your expertise and will rely on you to provide them with reliable information regarding your work. Some of the very best social media accounts for small businesses that I follow barely share any promotional content and they have the most loyal fan bases of anyone on the internet.

Be a real person.

If you don’t pay attention to anything else in this article, pay attention to this. You should be a real person when you’re writing social media posts for your business.

People buy from people. They might follow you on social media for your brand, but they’ll pay attention to your posts because you’re a person they like and care about. So use personal pronouns and share selfies. Don’t use overly formal language. Tell stories about your day or something funny that happened on your way to work. Give the humans who follow you a chance to know who you are as a person and what you care about. I promise, it will pay off.

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“One has to be positive without spending too much time unusual things”

— S.S.K

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september will be kind. september will be magical. september will bring the missing energy. september will be working towards our goals and self. september will be a month full of growth.

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Me watching the last episode of Stranger Things 3:

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STRANGER THINGS 3

(SPOILERS) I finished s3 yesterday and i have mixed feelings about it.

Some things I loved:

Robin and Steve’s friendship. They were so funny and amazing. They made me smile whenever they were screen. I loved what the Duffers did with the bathroom scene. Robin basically shot Steve down after he admitted he liked her and she admitted she was queer. Steve didn’t get angry at her, wasn’t disgusted. He was just like ‘oh, ok. but your taste in woman is horrible’ and i feel like we needed a duo like that.

Alexei The Cinnamon Roll. He was an amazing character and even though he didn’t have a big role, he was a great addition to s3. I cried when he died because my baby diDN’T DESERVE THAT.

Eleven and Max’s friendship. They were amazing together. Max showed Eleven that she can be her own person and doesn’t have to rely on people. And to all the people saying Max manipulated Eleven, fuck you. Max didn’t make Eleven dump Mike. She told Eleven that if he treated her like shit, that would be the best way to go and I completely agree.

The Scoops Troop. I’ve already spoken about Robin and Steve together but Robin, Steve, Erica and Dustin were absolute gold. They were downright my favourite part of the season. I loved seeing them on screen and I was never bored watching them all work together. They are the dream team.

Lucas Motherfucking Sinclair. His power this season blew me away. He saved El from being dragged away by the monster, used his slingshot to get Billy away from Max, shot the balloon to distract the monster so it didn’t attack Mike, El and Max, and saved El with the fireworks. He is one of the best characters and an absolute hero.

The way they showed how woman get treated in the workplace. They didn’t over exaggerate it or make it seem like no big deal. They showed Nancy’s frustration and anger towards her coworkers. It was great.

Those tiny moments between Will and Lucas. In the shed, in the supermarket, in Mike’s basement etc. I love their friendship and we need to see more of it

Some things I hated:

Mike’s attitude. He was a prick to El and Will. He was being horrible to El and treated her like she was all his. He pushed Will away and treated him like he didn’t matter. It pissed me off. I like his character, I do, but this season he was a dick.

THE QUEERBAITING. The scene with Mike and Will was the worst thing ever. The Duffers need to make their mind up regarding Will’s sexuality.

How Hopper was presented. He was presented as a crazy, overprotective dickhead. For fucks sake, that isn’t him. He is protective but he wouldn’t be a complete a-hole.

How we literally know nothing about that green acid. I mean, we see it and what it can do but we don’t know why it was created and what it’s used for.

Hopper ‘dying’. No explanation needed.

Alexei dying. Again, no explanation needed.

Mike not apologising to Will for being an absolute dickhead. I wanted to see Mike give a heartfelt apology for the way he treated Will.

Mileven was the main ship focused on and it pissed me off. I mean yeah, we saw a lot of Jopper and that was good but Lumax? We got a few scenes and we learnt about what happened between them after s2 and prior to s3 but I want more, goddammit!

Will wasn’t involved as much as he could of been. It’s like after him being focused on in s1 and s2, the Duffers just threw him upside and said ‘don’t need him anymore!’. He just followed Mike and Lucas around and got angry because they couldn’t play D&D and were focusing on girls. He needed to be involved in the story.

I’ll add more if i think of it.

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Stranger Things S3 Spoilers

This season we really lost

The father

The son

And the Holy Spirit

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busan, i love you.

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“I don’t like talking about climate change, it gives me anxiety”

That was what someone said to me today when I was explaining how natural hazards and the devastating aftermaths are only going to get worse due to climate change. Talk about the world dying gives you anxiety? Good. It should. We, as a human race, have 5 years left to fix climate change. If we don’t fix it within that time, most of the world with elevations lower than 200 feet will be underwater by 2030. This isn’t a joke. This isn’t something you can just ignore. Each and every one of us have absolutely no excuse for using single use plastics or living high waste lives. The average consumption and waste production of an American overshoots what the earth can sustainably produce. If everyone lived the lifestyle of an American, we would need over 5 earths to sustain us. Stop pretending climate change doesn’t exist. Stop ignoring the facts and studies. We need to talk about this if we want to live. The earth will die if we don’t lower emissions, waste production and natural resource consumption. The earth will die, and she’ll take our species down with her.

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Family member: so… have you changed your mind about having children yet?

Me: no, I still don’t want to have kids :))) I actually want to have surgery done so I can’t have children :)) I might adopt kids though :))

Family member: oh NO but you’ll reGRET it some day!!!!! :O

Me: no, I actually won’t, Patricia, because the world is becoming a terrible place full of crime and global warming and unhealthy living and technology that listens to what you say and do and I don’t want to bring kids into a world like that, but I’m happy to look after children who are already here in that world. Thanks for coming to my TED talk :) please take your opinions elsewhere :)

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My blood pressure watching this…

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april 1st

it’s been a while, but i missed this place and i have a deadline coming up so it’s a combination of procrastination and motivating myself

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haven’t posted here in a while but hey how is everyone?

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Tbh im kinda pissed im not asleep in bed next to the love of my life in a cottage with no obligations other than watering my vegetable garden

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oooh look at me learning how to make a gif!!11!!1 

now that I’m back, i’m realising just how much i missed being super dorky in my captions but i’m back,, and posting a bullet journal spread… from last year LMAO way to go me!! 

this is from august, and it was actually a super experimental month for me, in terms of my bullet journal, and i really went with an actual like journal style so there’s a lot of blurred out stuff in there for privacy!! gotta be safe on the internet yo 

anyways, i might post the individual photos later,, maybe idk, i don’t remember how tumblr works… 

and go check my out on instagram if u want, i’m trying to be more active there (i really like the story feature bc that takes away the pressure of having to take nice quality photos - not that you have to post good quality photos in order to be a studyblr - but it’s really nice to just ~casual snap~ and get to interact with people that way!! so yea follow me there :D) 

love you all <3